Influence, Ideology, and Corruption

Abstract

We have seen how ideology has been used by dictatorships to cover brutality and terror. But what about democracy? Can ideology be used for bad, as well as good, in a democracy? As we saw in the historical example of the Financial Crisis of 2007–2008, even democracies must always guard against abuse, fraud, and corruption. How could this have happened? What precisely were the mechanisms of influence and corruption which enabled such a massive fraud in a self-organizing market system? From economic theory, such markets (i.e., the financial market) should have been perfect markets, operating efficiently and honestly. But they did not. How was personal influence used in the operations of the financial system to cover fraud? Let us next look at how ideology can be used in a democracy not for good government but as a cover to corruption.